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'Factually incorrect': Vaccine experts criticize RFK Jr. decision to cut mRNA vaccine funding

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Published  August 8, 2025 5:42pm CDT
Health
FOX 9
Experts criticize RFK Jr. mRNA vaccine funding

Experts criticize RFK Jr. mRNA vaccine funding

A long list of medical experts are saying Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to cut mRNA research will set back the country?s vaccine science by a decade.

The Brief

    • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced this week that his Department of Health and Human Services is canceling about $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine research because, he says, it's ineffective, and he wants to fund safer alternatives.
    • Vaccine experts say Kennedy doesn't seem to understand the science. They say the mRNA vaccines developed during the first Trump administration saved more than 3 million American lives during the COVID pandemic.
    • Dr. Peter Hotez tells FOX 9 this will likely shift biomedicine innovation from the U.S. to Europe just as American labs started making progress on mRNA vaccines for breast and pancreatic cancers.

(FOX 9) - A long list of medical experts are saying Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to cut mRNA research will set back the country’s vaccine science by a decade.

Inoculation reverse

Funding gone:

The Department of Health and Human Services canceled almost $500 million in research funding this week. Kennedy says they’re trying to find safer and more effective vaccines.

Vaccine experts say he doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about because mRNA vaccines saved more than 3 million American lives during the COVID pandemic, while the approach Kennedy favors is outdated and far more dangerous.

Cancellation explanation

Ending the trending:

The U.S. government has invested more than $32 billion in mRNA vaccine research since 1985, but no more.

"After reviewing the science and consulting top experts at NIH and FDA, HHS has determined that mRNA technology poses more risk than benefits for these respiratory viruses," said Kennedy, the Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary.

"Basically every statement in the press release they issued was factually incorrect," countered Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert and professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine.

What are mRNA vaccines?

Faster and strong:

Dr. Peter Hotez helped develop COVID vaccines that didn’t use mRNA, but he says the cuts are an unforced error.

mRNA vaccines send your body a message that sets off an immune response and prepares it for an actual infection.

They can be developed and produced quickly and several peer-reviewed studies show the mRNA COVID vaccines developed during the first Trump administration were very effective at preventing deaths and hospitalization with only very rare serious complications.

"It's got a good safety profile," said Dr. Hotez. "There are rare myocarditis effects, far less than from the virus itself."

Kennedy says the government will prioritize the development of safer vaccines, and specifically mentions the whole-virus approach.

Those vaccines are much harder and slower to produce than with mRNA and are also responsible for two of the worst vaccine reactions in RSV and swine flu vaccines decades ago.

The future of science

Lost to Europe?:

Dr. Hotez says the hope now is that private funding can help keep American research moving forward, but biomedicine innovation seems likely to shift to Europe or even Asia just as American labs started making progress towards mRNA vaccines for breast cancer and pancreatic cancer.

"This may be one of the real hopes," Dr. Hotez said. "So what he's doing is really unhelpful and I think dangerous for the country."

Dr. Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota also called this one of the worst decisions he’s seen in 50 years of public health preparedness work.

HealthMinnesota